Smoking Ban in Several Public Spaces: The Alliance Against Tobacco Regrets That Terraces Are Spared

The president of the Alliance Against Tobacco, Loïc Josseran, acknowledged a "step forward that will allow us to move away from smoking a little more," on Saturday, May 31, on RMC , following the ban on cigarettes from July ¹ in parks, on beaches and around schools. However, he regretted that the government had not gone "further" by targeting café terraces, which are "veritable aquariums of smoke and smokers," according to the association leader.

"We are faced with a real lobby of tobacco manufacturers who are working through cafe and restaurant owners," he said, noting that "a good number of these restaurant and bar owners are also tobacconists" and that the government "probably did not want to engage in a standoff" with this profession.

Mr. Josseran considered the government's objectives of achieving "a generation free of tobacco by 2032" to be "illusory" with these measures, notably "without increasing taxes" and "by leaving smoking areas on terraces ." Failure to comply with the ban, promised since the end of 2023 and announced in Ouest-France on Thursday, May 29 by the Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin , could result in a fine of 135 euros.

Smoking causes the death of 75,000 people each year. And according to figures fromthe French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Behaviors, it costs French society €156 billion per year (lost lives, quality of life, and productivity, public spending on prevention, repression, and care, etc.), with alcohol costing €102 billion.